Bruce Daddis has worked long and hard to attain his goals. An educator at his high school alma mater, Daddis also serves his country as a sergeant in the U.S. National Guard, after joining the U.S. Army a decade ago.

And now the native of Belleville, who was recently married this past November, is ready to begin a new role as the baseball coach at Union County College in Cranford.

Daddis, a father of three, graduated from Belleville High in 1999. He went on to attend Caldwell College, where he played baseball for the Cougars. After graduation, his first coaching job would be at Caldwell as an assistant to then-coach Chris Reardon, who is now the head man at Queens College.

Subsequent assistant coaching positions would follow at Oratory Prep, Belleville High, Wayne Hills and North Arlington, where he was an assistant to another Belleville grad, Paul Marcantuono, for four years.

"I really enjoyed working with Paul," said Daddis. "But I also knew I was ready for the opportunity to be a head coach."

He did get experience as a head coach in the summer with the Union County Gamers, of the Atlantic Baseball Confederation Collegiate League, a job he's held since 2014.

While he thought that first head coaching job would be on the high school level, a conversation with a former college teammate at Caldwell changed his mind.

"Hasani Whitfield was the head coach at Union County College," said Daddis. "And when Hasani had the chance to go to Caldwell to be the new head coach, he recommended I apply for the job at Union, and it worked out great."

Coaches coming out of Belleville High is nothing new. Marcantuono graduated two years ahead of Daddis from BHS and has done some good things at North Arlington High. Alan Frank, a 1973 grad, had a successful run as the BHS baseball coach. John Senesky graduated from Belleville and later came back to coach football at his alma mater for 30 years. Jamie Galioto has gone on to a successful career as a softball coach at Hanover Park High and, before that, at West Orange.

Chris Cantarella, a 1989 BHS grad, is the softball and girls basketball coach at his alma mater. Nate Guagliardi is now the women's soccer coach and administrator at Caldwell University. John Spina has returned to Belleville as the girls and boys volleyball coach. Carl Corino was one of the winningest high school softball coaches in the state before retiring. The high school baseball field at BHS is named after the late George Zanfini, who graduated BHS in 1961 and was later a Hall of Fame coach.

Daddis coached the Union County College Owls this past fall and he's expecting a good turnout of players, as practice was set to begin this week. The team will open the season in early March, at home, then travel to Myrtle Beach for four days. The Owls will play 47 games this spring. Their home field is located across the street from the school's campus.

"I want to help build this program," said Daddis. "I'm really excited about my coaching staff and teaching these players the college game.

Union County College is a two-year school, so the recruiting process is constantly ongoing. Daddis' knowledge of the schools in North Jersey and relationships with local high school coaches should be beneficial.

The Owls play in the Garden State Athletic Conference. The school has an enrollment of 13,000 and currently has 12 intercollegiate teams for men and women.

"There are some really good two-year schools in New Jersey for intercollegiate baseball," said Daddis. "And I want our team to be one of them."

Daddis was married to Amanda Savage-Daddis this past November. He has three children, Brett, 14, Kayla, 11, and Braeden, 9. A decade ago, a young Daddis was working to build a career as a teacher, but then opted to join the army to build his résumé further. When Daddis returned to Belleville after his term in the military, he became a history teacher in the Belleville school system. He is also a sergeant in the U.S. National Guard and has aspirations of becoming an officer.

A husband, father, teacher, coach and a member of the U.S. military, there is certainly not a lot of downtime for Daddis. But he's just fine with that.

"Plain and simple, I love baseball and always knew it was going to be my life," said Daddis. "I always felt coaching was my way to make it a career. As a player, I competed at a level higher than my actual abilities. I hope to challenge my players to break through their own ceilings."